I spent about four hours walking round Cherrapunjee looking for a budget place to stay and all the "homestays" (actually not homestays but hotels looking to cash in on the homestay trend) were charging 2,000 Rs a night. I was almost ready to get on the bus back to Shillong. Finally I saw this place and thank goodness for that. Owner is a funny and chilled dude. Rooms are very basic and beds a bit hard but they are clean and the price is very cheap. Separate bathroom and toilet which is round the back of the property but they are decent and clean with the best hot shower in India. A couple of tea shops a minute walk away and some restaurants 5 minutes walk away.

I have not stayed here. but reading the reviews i set out to cherra planning to stay here. Due to soem confusion in shillong we reached very late a cherra . Our five member team( i was the only male) knocked at' by the way' at 8.pm and i was rudely told no rooms a re avilable. But i saw all their rooms locked with no light inside. Probably they were all empty... I will never venture out without prebooking in future. There was no facility to prebook and hence i had this scary situation. I was dumbfounded, but luckily gotr a response from the number i saw on street side and that was a gem. so unless you reach very early dont set out to stay in by the way.

If you're traveling from far and need to stop off before heading down into the jungle, choose this place. Lovely host who gives you the low-down on all the logistics and what to do. Also looks after your bag (free of charge) while you go trekking so you only have to take a small bag (v helpful). Basic rooms and hard beds but for the price, you can't complain. I wouldn't stay longer than a night as down in the jungle is a much better location for exploring/trekking Would definitely recommend

Tl;dr: By the way is a sort of guest house with very basic and clean rooms and a very, very good owner. It's 3km outside of Sohra (aka Cherrapunji) Market. You can easily hitch a lift down. Alternatively, if arriving from Shillong in a share taxi, let your driver know and they'll drop you right outside. You'll see the big 'By The Way' sign painted on the side of the guesthouse. You need to ring the bell in the building behind where the rooms are. There's a shop above the guesthouse and an atm nearby, and a few restaurants. Very cheap. Only negative is beds are quite hard, but that appears to be the norm in Meghalaya. The host is keen to help out and offers great advice on what (and how) to do in the local area. Rooms don't have bathrooms - there's very clean facilities 15 second walk from the furthest room. Would recommend.

Me and my friend have stayed here for one day .. The stay was really good . so as the climate extremely nice . by the way it was worth staying there. The owner also is a nice man.. We would love to visit this place again..